Akst: More tarnish for a sterling school

A Daily Chronicle story Tuesday about Northern Illinois University police officers working under new (perhaps temporary) leadership at both departmental and university levels was upbeat.

“We’re off to a good start in the right direction,” said Bill Nicklas, NIU associate vice president for institutional planning and sustainability, speaking also as the new, temporary, acting director of public safety at NIU.

“What I saw [Monday] morning was positive.”

It’s too soon to declare a bright new day at NIU.

In fact, one of the most convoluted local stories in recent memory (which is why it’s drawing such negative attention) reveals only one conclusion thus far: NIU’s reputation has suffered again.

Here’s a condensed sequence of events:

Oct. 28, 2011: NIU police officer Andrew Rifkin is fired after an NIU student tells university police that Rifkin had sexually assaulted her two weeks earlier.

Here are some questions we need to see more fully and publicly addressed.

Why wasn’t every document in this case – no matter what file it was in – sent to the state’s attorney?

Perhaps a rhetorical question, but incontrovertible integrity or not, how long will NIU maintain that Grady’s stormy tenure is worth $206,000 a year?

Salary.com (based on HR data this month) says the median expected salary for a typical U.S. sheriff or police chief is $96,462.

A Nov. 9 NIU Today article said Eddie Williams, chief of operations and executive vice president of Finance & Facilities, recommended the temporary restructuring of public safety reporting to Nicklas to Peters to “provide a more direct and concerted management focus of the Department of Police and Public Safety during this interim period.”

The NIU police previously reported directly to Williams.

Why does he now think he shouldn’t oversee the police department? What does “direct and concerted management focus” mean?

The last item on my list isn’t a question, but here goes: It’s a running joke on campus that every time the “castle crowd” tweaks the organizational chart, administrators (already the highest paid people at NIU) get paid more money.

That needs to stop.

Nobody is laughing.

• Jason Akst teaches journalism and public relations at Northern
Illinois University. You can reach him at jasondakst@gmail.com.